Kent Somers, The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, covering the Arizona Cardinals and the NFL. I'm a graduate of Utah State University, Harvard of the Intermountain West. I've worked for The Republic since 1985 and have covered the Cardinals and the NFL since the mid-1990s.

Trading Larry Fitzgerald makes no sense for Arizona Cardinals

It’s an easy topic to throw out there during a slow news cycle, and few things generate traffic like suggesting a team trade its best player.

Never mind the feasability, or lack thereof, of such a deal.

And in Fitzgerald’s case, it makes no sense. I won’t even get into the argument of what kind of compensation teams would be willing to give up to get Fitzgerald: draft choices, players, etc. That’s not even worth thinking about it, because the numbers don’t work.

In August of 2011, Fitzgerald signed an extension that includes a $10 million signing bonus and a $15 million option bonus. For cap purposes, those numbers are prorated through the contract.

At least $15 million of Fitzgerald’s bonuses have yet to be accounted for under the salary cap. I won’t get into some of the arcane cap rules, but if the Cardinals traded Fitzgerald, they would still be on the hook for that $15 million.

So, yes, they could trade Fitzgerald. His contract doesn’t have a no-trade clause, something his previous one did. But the cap hit would be $15 million. That’s a large sum, even if the team was able to spread it over more than one season.

So, trading Fitzgerald would result in $15 million of dead money against the cap. Plus, the Cardinals would have to pay the players/draft picks obtained in the trade. Plus, they would not have the services of one of the NFL’s elite receivers, who turns 30 in August.

It doesn’t make sense on any level.

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